


started running (nowhere to run to)

by idkimoutofideas



Series: febuwhump 2021 [6]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nausea, Whump, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29278647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idkimoutofideas/pseuds/idkimoutofideas
Summary: Magnus catches the movement out of the corner of his eye, and turns around in time to see a giant leaf come flying at him. He never considered getting hit by a leaf as something that could hurt, but it knocks him off his feet and slams him back into the base of another giant flower.All the air leaves his lungs in a rush, and his vision goes dark.Written for Febuwhump day 7: poisoning
Series: febuwhump 2021 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154915
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	started running (nowhere to run to)

**Author's Note:**

> I originally set this fic in cycle 8, the mushroom world, but then I realized that didn't make any sense so I changed it last minute.  
> Also the title is from 'How Far We've Come' by Matchbox Twenty bc I couldn't think of a title and that song fits Balance so well.

The plane they land on this year is dotted with large forests of extremely tall, very brightly colored and vivid flowers. Flowers that are twenty, thirty, forty feet high. Flowers that release poisonous pollen into the air when disturbed. And of course, the light had to go and land right in the middle of one of those forests.

They only found out that the pollen was poisonous after Merle went to go investigate the giant flowers, against Cap’nports orders, and didn’t come back. After that they met up with some locals, a group of dwarves, who told them that there was a way to move stealthily through the flowers, but it's dangerous to do so because some of the flowers are also sentient.

Magnus has been itching to go out on the mission to retrieve the light since it first fell. He died early last cycle, after he found out first hand that the planet was covered in nearly invisible sinkholes. Cap’nport doesn’t want to take the ship into the flower forests, so he parks on the edge, and both he and Taako stay with the ship while Magnus, Lup, Lucretia, Barry, and a few of the local dwarves go in.

At first, it’s all going well. They find the light relatively quickly thanks to Barry and Lup and their somewhat-reliable device/spell thing that can sometimes track the light. He doesn’t understand it but it works this time, and that’s all that Magnus needs to know. The light is embedded in the stem of one of the giant flowers, so they set up a site to try and extract it without disturbing the flowers too much.

Magnus is standing guard with Freta, a badass dwarf woman who has an axe big enough to rival Magnus’, and who beat him in an arm wrestling contest during their first week there. So naturally she’s in charge of the expedition. 

There’s a rustle in the woods around them, and Magnus whips his head around to search for the source of the noise. The mask he and the rest of the IPRE crew are wearing covers their entire face, buckling securely around their head, but it makes it a little hard to see sometimes.

“You see something?” Freta asks, shifting her grip on her axe.

“I don’t know.” Magnus murmurs. He adjusts his mask a bit and tries not to let it distract him. 

There’s another noise, louder this time, and Magnus holds out a hand to the excavation group. They all stop what they’re doing, and Magnus sees Lup hold her wand in a ready position. They stand still and silent for a minute, the only sound coming from the muffled breathing filtering through the masks.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes pass with no other noise, and Magnus drops his hand.

“Magnus?” Lucretia’s voice breaks the quiet that’s fallen on them. 

“I just thought I heard…” he trails off, squinting into the forest, searching for any movement. There’s still nothing and he lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and shakes his head. “Nevermind.”

Magnus glances back at the crew and the excavation process. “How much longer do you think this’ll take? I don’t wanna spend too long in here-”

He catches the movement out of the corner of his eye, and turns around in time to see a giant leaf come flying at him. He never considered getting hit by a leaf as something that could hurt, but it knocks him off his feet and slams him back into the base of another giant flower.

All the air leaves his lungs in a rush, and his vision goes dark.

It takes him a second to realize he’s not unconscious, he can still hear the fight going on around him, he just can’t see. He struggles to breathe, briefly panicked because he can’t see and gods if he loses his sight-

That’s when he realizes that the reason he can’t see is because his mask got knocked to the side.

Which means he’s breathing in poisoned air.

The realization hits him at the same time the pain does, his chest seizing and his lungs feel like they’re on fire. He desperately grabs at his mask and tries to pull it back in place before he inhales any more poison. Once the mask is on he devolves into a coughing fit that has him doubled over - but at least he can breathe.

Once he’s able to, he looks up and sees the flashes of spells and the glint of metal as the others fight against the flowers. Unsteadily, Magnus uses the flower he’s leaning against to leverage himself to his feet. Someone is shouting orders, but he can’t think straight, and he’s dimly aware that he no longer has his axe. The thought barely crosses his mind when a hand grabs his arm and pulls, and it’s all he can do to stay on his feet as they stumble along.

They run for seconds, minutes, hours, and with every step it gets harder and harder to breathe. His mask is on but it feels like a cloud of fog has entered his brain, pressing down any coherent thought and choking him from the inside. 

The Starblaster appears suddenly in front of him, the shiny silver hull distinct against the rest of the vividly colored plane, and he’s dragged through the door.

“We need to leave. Now.” A voice says. Magnus knows that voice. He _knows_ he knows that voice, but he can’t place it. They sound panicked though, and Magnus briefly worries that someone is hurt. He tries to look at who is speaking, but his vision is little more than dancing black spots and the vague outline of shapes around him. He still can’t breathe, and he reaches up to pull off his mask when the ship takes off with a jerk, and he has to devote all his concentration to staying on his feet. The grip on his arm tightens and grounds him.

Something collides with the Starblaster, hitting it with enough force to cause the whole room to spin, and Magnus spins with it.

Magnus comes to his senses on his hands and knees, with no memory of falling. There’s several voices talking now, but he can’t understand what they’re saying. He still can’t breathe well, and every breath he does take rattles in his chest and the only thing he can focus on is the constricting pressure of the mask and he needs to take it off. It’s on like a vice, he reaches for the clasp to undo it but his hands aren’t responding and he can’t figure it out. His breath is coming in even shorter gasps as he yanks on the mask, causing it to slip to the side again and now he can’t see anything and he can’t get the mask off and he can’t breathe and-

A gentle hand comes up and takes over what Magnus was unable to do. His hands fall limply to his sides as someone deftly unclips his mask and it falls to the ground with a loud clatter.

He tries to take a deep breath only to realize he still can’t breathe. Why can’t he breathe? The mask is off, he should be able to breathe. He’s hunched over on himself, and every inhale burns his lungs, like he’s being stabbed by a thousand knives at once. There are voices surrounding him, but the fog in his mind has entered his vision too and he can’t tell which way is up.

Something is shoved in his face and Magnus rears back instinctively only to be caught and held in place by someone else behind him. His head is tilted back and a cup is placed to his lips and before he can do anything a vile tasting liquid is being poured down his throat. It smells like old swamp water and tastes like bitter dirt, and it’s thick and slimy and chunky and makes him want to gag. He tries to fight off the hands keeping him in place but he can’t fight back or do anything and he just wants it all to stop-

The cup vanishes and whoever is holding him lets go. He falls forward again, one arm braced on the ground and the other curled around his stomach. He can feel his whole body shaking, quivering like he’s about to collapse. After a moment his vision clears enough to see the stark outline of his hand splayed on the floor of the Starblaster, and he realizes with a start that he can breathe easier. It’s not back to normal by any means, and he’s still wheezing, but his lungs don’t burn with every inhale, and after another moment his head stops swimming quite so much.

“Magnus?” Someone says above him.

He puts his other hand on the ground and slowly pushes himself up to a sitting position. There are no more black spots dancing across his vision, but he can’t focus on what’s around him, the fog cloud in his brain still making everything a little fuzzy. He opens his mouth to say something, but the second he does he’s hit by a wave of nausea so intense he can’t help but double over again, both arms wrapped around his midsection.

The figures around him take a startled step back as he dry heaves, and a small bin is pushed in front of his face. He grabs onto it desperately to try and anchor himself, still feeling like he’s floating, but nothing comes up. The retching turns into a coughing fit, deep, wet coughs that shake his entire body until he finally coughs up a large glob of something yellow-green and slimy and spits it into the bin.

He leans back and takes a breath, and realizes he no longer has to fight to inhale. He’s still wheezing slightly, but for the first time since the fight he feels like he’s actually getting enough air.

“Gross.” Magnus looks up to see Lup standing above him, trying to look put out but unable to hide the crease in her brow. Magnus shakily wipes the back of his sleeve across his mouth, and Freta appears in front of him and holds out a cup.

“Drink.” She orders. He eyes the cup warily. “It’s just water.”

He reaches out to take the cup from her, and has a hard time keeping his hands steady. He stares mutely down at the cup for a moment, gathering the energy to lift it. He finally does, and it tastes so much better than water has any right to be. Cool and clean and smooth, and before he knows it the cup is empty.

Magnus sits for a moment, enjoying the simple act of being able to breathe without immense pain. Lup and Barry are standing several feet away from him talking on their stone of farspeech - probably to Davenport and Taako - but they both keep shooting furtive glances at him.

A hand touches his shoulder and he jumps, the cup almost slipping out of his fingers. He looks over to see Lucretia kneeling next to him, her brow creased as she stares at him intently.

“Feel any better?” She asks quietly. He goes to respond before thinking better of it, and ends up just nodding. She doesn’t look reassured.

“Think you can stand up?”

Another nod.

She stands and holds out a hand to him, and he takes a second to breathe before reaching for her and letting her pull him to his feet. As soon as he stands he’s hit with another wave of dizziness that makes his head swim. Lucretia grips his arm tightly, and he uses her strong grip to keep himself grounded without falling over. He clenches his jaw against the nausea and dizziness and focuses on staying upright as he waits for it to pass. It finally does, and he gives Lucretia a small smile that does nothing to ease the concern in her eyes.

“‘m good-” Magnus tries to say, but it’s rough and raspy and it still feels like something is caught in his throat. He clears his throat once and tries again. “I‘m good.” He sounds like shit but at least he gets the words out.

She wordlessly leads him over to a nearby chair, and he does his best not to look relieved as he collapses into it.

The others are still talking, but Magnus can’t bring himself to concentrate on the conversation. He can breathe now - thank the gods - but he still feels slightly numb, not quite connected to the world around him. He sighs and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes. The colors that dance across the back of his eyelids are oddly comforting, and he takes a moment to rest and breathe and float, not worried about the light or the Hunger or keeping the others safe.

Something touches his shoulder and he jumps, brought back to his body with a sudden yank. He looks around wildly and realizes that most of the others have dispersed, leaving only Lucretia and Freta with him

Freta holds out another cup, and even from here the smell makes him recoil.

“Drink.” She orders.

“Do I have to?” He tries not to whine, but he still feels like shit and it tasted _so bad_.

“If you want to live, yes.”

Magnus sighs and takes the cup from her, and before he gets too hung up on the smell he downs it. It’s not _quite_ as bad as the first cup, but it’s still gross and just the wrong mix of chunky and slimy that makes him want to puke again.

Freta takes the now empty cup from his hands and replaces it with a full bottle of water.

“Drink a lot of water, and have one of these,” she waves the now empty cup, “every six hours, and you should be ok.” Magnus nods, and Freta’s expression softens the slightest amount. “I’m glad you’re still with us, not everyone is as much of a fighter as you.” She claps him on the shoulder and hurries off, leaving just him and Lucretia.

Magnus’ face heats up slightly as he remembers how useless he was in the fight earlier, and how pathetic he must’ve looked. He’s the _security officer_ , and he had to rely on Lucretia to pull him out of a fight when he couldn’t think straight.

“I’m gonna, uh, get some rest.” Magnus stands up, braced for the wave of dizziness, and this time doesn’t even sway on his feet.

“I can, um, walk with you?” Lucretia offers, wringing her hands together. His first instinct is to insist he’s fine, but he also understands the need to _see_ someone who got hurt.

He shrugs. “If you want to.” 

And if he walks a little slower so he doesn’t trip over his own feet, well, no one needs to know.

They get to his room and Lucretia pauses, still looking at him in concern. “Magnus listen, I, um-” she trails off for a second. “I’m really glad you’re ok.” She finishes quietly.

Magnus gives her what he hopes is a reassuring smile. “You know me Luce, I’m always ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> am I aware that almost all of my fics so far for febuwhump have the same theme? yes  
> am I going to change that at any point in the near future? no


End file.
